FRAMED

Like a revamped version of a doctor's house call, optical retailer Brownie and Madam Optical Co. brings prescription eyewear as well as a stylist's eye to women at home or at work. Here are some favorite frames of founder and optometrist Alpa Shroff:

Vintage cat-eye updated to be softer and more wearable. Charlotte, sangria matte, $150.

- Maghan McDowell

TEMESCAL GETS GLAMMED UP

Another sign of these go-go times? Longtime Mission salon Glama-Rama has opened a new location (6399 Telegraph Ave.) at the edge of Oakland's bubbling Temescal neighborhood and on the same block as a clutch of vintage and antique boutiques. "We live in Oakland and, you know, there's been a mass exodus, I'd say, for the past five years, to the East Bay," says stylist Gunner Conway-Davenport, who co-owns the S.F. and Oakland spots with founder stylist and spouse Deena Davenport. The new salon-gallery specializing in vintage and avant-garde dos opened in a corner space that housed a dry cleaner and before that a butcher shop, according to Conway-Davenport. Now, ornate, gold-toned midcentury chandeliers hang above the half dozen bubblegum-pink vintage vanities - one for each stylist's chair. "We love opening salons," Conway-Davenport says. "To tell you the truth, Deena is good at it, and good at putting the right people in a fun environment. Our motto is we just want to have fun and have a good time and make people look beautiful."

PROM FORTUNES

A creative prom-posal (invitation to prom) is almost more important than going to prom these days, but if you attend, brace yourself: After rising for three years in a row, prom spending will decrease 14 percent this year, from $1,139 in 2013 to $978 this year, says a poll by Visa Inc. The company's new Plan'it Prom app lets teens track spending as they shop, but it's the parents who shell out, isn't it? Frugal Midwesterners will pay the least ($835), while West Coast families will pay the most ($1,125), their fortunes perhaps buoyed by the tech booms of the past, or the social media bubble yet to pop.

SHOP TALK

Carrots boutique quietly closed last month after 6 1/2 years in Jackson Square, but co-owner Melissa Grimm hopes to keep the shopping experience going in other venues. The decision to close came at a time when the business was poised to grow, but "life was sort of moving in a different direction for both of us," Melissa said. She has two young children (2 months and 22 months), and her co-owner, sister Catie, is moving to Los Angeles with her family. The 4,000-square-foot store specialized in cult brands such as Dean Hutchinson's a.bout and Private 0204. Melissa hopes to hold trunk shows in the future and take advantage of the store's "great following of people in the city and areas near and far."